Portland Winterhawks
–77 | arena = Memorial Coliseum Rose Garden | colours = red, black and white | GM = Mike Johnston | coach = Mike Johnston | website = www.winterhawks.com | name1 = Edmonton Oil Kings | dates1 = 1951–1976 | name2 = Portland Winter Hawks | dates2 = 1976–2009 | name3 = Portland Winterhawks | dates3 = 2009–present }} The Portland Winterhawks are a major junior ice hockey team, playing in the Western Hockey League, a member league in the Canadian Hockey League, the highest level of non-professional hockey in the world. They play their home games at the Memorial Coliseum, though typically a few games each season are also played in the neighboring Rose Garden. The Winterhawks have won the President's Cup twice, and the Memorial Cup twice in four appearances. The team has been in Portland since 1976–77 when the team moved from Edmonton, Alberta. While known as the Edmonton Oil Kings, the team won the Memorial Cup twice and was runner-up seven times. History Previous-Owner Brian Shaw was a pioneer in many aspects of Junior Hockey, not only moving a team to the United States for the first time, but also is credited with designing the current CHL championship format of the champion from each of the three leagues (WHL, OHL, and QMJHL) as well as a host-city team competing for the Memorial Cup. Portland won the Memorial Cup in 1983 and 1998. The Winterhawks were also pioneers of promotion and are credited with the invention of the "Dash for Cash" where contestants are picked to run onto the ice and try to scoop up as many silver dollars in 2 minutes as they could. This popular promotion has been running for many years. Also, in late November/early December, they hold their annual teddy bear toss, which fans throw teddy bears on the ice at the first Portland goal, which are then donated to local children's charities. On December 6, 2008, fans threw out 22,392 teddy bears after Luke Walker scored Portland's first goal against Seattle. The Winterhawks wear jerseys similar to those of the Chicago Blackhawks of the National Hockey League, causing some to erroneously assume that the Winterhawks are a minor league farm team of the Blackhawks. In actuality, the jerseys originally worn by the first Winterhawks team were a used set of Chicago jerseys obtained through connections between the owners of the two teams. In early photos, the old Chicago jerseys are identifiable by the letter C with crossed tomahawks on the shoulder crest. The Winterhawks eventually changed the C to a P. In recent seasons, the Winterhawks have worn a unique alternate jersey, which is black with a red and white Portland skyline and the word PORTLAND around the bottom hem. Currently, they wear a white alternate jersey loosely based on a Montreal Canadiens jersey. Instead of the Canadiens' 'CH' logo, the jersey has the word PORTLAND in outlined letters across the front stripe, and is black where the Canadiens jersey is blue. The Portland-Chicago connection runs even deeper, as the Blackhawks were founded in 1926 by Frederic McLaughlin, who simply bought the contracts of most of the members of the Portland Rosebuds and brought them to Chicago. Mascot The team mascot of the Winterhawks is a white bird with multicolored tail and wing feathers, named Tom-A-Hawk. Tom-A-Hawk was introduced in 1999–2000. He wears jersey number 00. Tom-A-Hawk's main rival is Cool Bird of the Seattle Thunderbirds.' Name change The team was known as the Winter Hawks until May 2009, when it issued a press release that "the space...announced its retirement" and that the team was renaming itself the Winterhawks. Current ownership Bill Gallacher, a Calgary businessman, purchased the team in October 2008. Season-by-season record ''Note: GP = Games played, W = Wins, L = Losses, T = Ties, OL = Overtime losses, Pts = Points, GF = Goals for, GA = Goals against'' Championships *'Memorial Cup (2)': 1982–83, 1997–98 *'President's Cup (2)': 1981–82, 1997–98 *'Conference Playoff Champions (2)': 1997–98, 2000–01 *'Division Playoff Champions (5)': 1978–79, 1981–82, 1982–83, 1988–89, 1992–93 *'Regular Season Division Champions (11)': 1977–78, 1978–79, 1979–80, 1981–82, 1982–83, 1988–89, 1992–93, 1996–97, 1997–98, 2001–02 Team records NHL alumni List of Portland Winterhawks alumni who have graduated to play in the National Hockey League. * Jim Agnew * Dave Archibald * Dave Babych * Wayne Babych * Jozef Balej * Jeff Bandura * Dave Barr * Ryan Bast * Brian Benning * Jim Benning * James Black * Lonny Bohonos * Keith Brown * Braydon Coburn * Ed Cooper * Brian Curran * Tony Currie * Byron Dafoe * Matt Davidson * Adam Deadmarsh * Jim Dobson * Brandon Dubinsky * Brent Fedyk * Andrew Ference * Ray Ferraro * Jeff Finley * Colin Forbes * Michael Funk * Joaquin Gage * Paul Gaustad * Bob Geale * Josh Green * Jannik Hansen * Randy Heath * Marcel Hossa * Marian Hossa * Dave Hoyda * Cale Hulse * Jamie Huscroft * Randy Ireland * Brad Isbister * Jakub Klepis * Steve Konowalchuk * John Kordic * Richard Kromm * Jason LaBarbera * Scott Langkow * James Latos * Derek Laxdal * Doug Lecuyer * Jamie Linden * David Mackey * Clint Malarchuk * Darrell May * Jason McBain * Cody McLeod * Mark Messier * Roy Mitchell * Brenden Morrow * Paul Mulvey * Brantt Myhres * Cam Neely * Scott Nichol * Gary Nylund * Josh Olson * Perry Pelensky * Brent Peterson * Jim Playfair * Larry Playfair * Andrej Podkonicky * Ray Podloski * Nolan Pratt * Richie Regehr * Florent Robidoux * Jeff Rohlicek * Grant Sasser * Dave Scatchard * Jeff Sharples * Brandon Smith * Ryan Stewart * Garret Stroshein * Joey Tetarenko * Mike Toal * Tim Tookey * Alfie Turcotte * Perry Turnbull * Randy Turnbull * Nick Vachon * Mike Vernon * Terry Virtue * Gord Walker * Matt Walker * Blake Wesley * Glen Wesley * Jason Wiemer * Dan Woodley * Gary Yaremchuk * Ken Yaremchuk * Brad Zavisha * Richard Zednik External links * Portland Winterhawks official homepage Category:American ice hockey teams Category:Western Hockey League (junior) team Category:Established in 1976 Category:Western Hockey League (junior) teams